(Credits: Far Out / United Artists)

Marlon Brando is an actor who defines Hollywood like few others. He’s a rare example of a performer whose career peaks straddled American cinema’s so-called Golden Age and the era of New Hollywood in the 1970s. And yet his legacy transcends both periods.

In the words of director Martin Scorcese, “He was the marker. There’s ‘before Brando’ and ‘after Brando’.” His dedication to the roles he played, throwing himself headlong into them and transforming himself according to the part, defied the conventions of Hollywood stardom.

‘Before’ Brando, stars were cast in a role according to their singular on-screen persona. Many roles were even created to fit the actor, rather than the other way around. ‘After’ Brando, some actors like Daniel Day-Lewis and Meryl Streep built on his innovative approach by method acting their way through entire film shoots, while others like Robert De Niro and Al Pacino took his introspective method of character study further to elevate their performances on screen.

Aside from his acting, Brando is just as iconic for the flamboyant and sometimes eccentric life he led. It seemed at one time that almost everyone in showbusiness had their own off-the-wall Marlon Brando story.

But let’s assume you’re new to the actor and his work. Or perhaps you’re only vaguely familiar with one or two of his on-screen roles. What is there to know about Marlon Brando? Well, here’s a good place to start.

What are Marlon Brando’s best-known movies?

Marlon Brando had a film career that arguably no one else could match. Not necessarily for the quantity of extraordinary performances he produced, but for the quality and versatility on display in his defining roles. His performances have put his name in lights alongside some of the greatest films in cinematic history.

Firstly, there’s A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), where he transferred his stage performance of the brutish Stanley Kowalski onto the big screen. Then there’s his turn as Terry Malloy in Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront (1954), which features his famous “I could have been a contender” speech. The latter won him his first of two Best Actor Oscars.

Decades later, he would go on to effect a performance that would change filmmaking forever as Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972). And, in another classic moment of New Hollywood, he returned to work with director Francis Ford Coppola in the epic war movie Apocalypse Now, playing a supporting role.

To read more about these and other Brando roles, check out Far Out’s beginner’s guide to his performances.

How did Marlon Brando start out when he was young?

At the age of 18, Brando travelled to New York with his older sisters, also aspiring actors, to attend the American Theatre Wing Professional School at the progressive and left-field New School university. There, he studied the Stanislavski system of acting under famed teacher Stella Adler.

After being expelled from a New School production for bad behaviour, he found his way onto Broadway with a bit-part role. He was then kicked off the production of the play The Eagle Has Two Heads, his first major starring role.

This led him to the performance that made him in the first theatrical run of A Streetcar Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams and directed by Kazan. He was the second choice for the part of Stanley Kowalski and was initially considered too young, but he came to embody the role like no one else could.

The rave reviews he received for this performance on Broadway led to his first film acting gig in The Men (1950), closely followed by Kazan’s screen adaptation of Streetcar.

What links James Dean and Marlon Brando?

Prior to his casting in the stage version of Streetcar, Brando was tried out for the part of Jim Stark in an early attempt to film Rebel Without a Cause. This role would go on to become the most enduring of James Dean’s brief career when the movie was finally made and released in 1955.

Coincidentally, after watching his early performances, Dean became an avid fan of Brando. He considered him his acting idol and even something of a mentor after Brando visited the set of Dean’s first film, East of Eden.

As well as two of Hollywood’s most promising young talents in the mid-1950s, Brando and Dean were seen as mavericks in the acting profession and bad boys around town. They became known for their hedonistic lifestyles, and there were even unsubstantiated rumours that their relationship was more than just professional admiration and friendship.

Was Marlon Brando Italian?

Given his iconic portrayal of a Sicilian mafia boss in The Godfather and the “o” at the end of his surname, there is a common misconception that Marlon Brando was Italian. Or that at least he hailed from a family of Italian-American heritage.

In fact, Brando had no Italian blood in him whatsoever. His family was of German and Irish descent. His German ancestors initially immigrated to New York with the surname Brandau, the spelling of which was later changed to match its phonetic pronunciation in English.

How old was Marlon Brando in The Godfather?

Brando’s genius is evident in The Godfather not only because of his ability to convince everyone he’s actually Italian. He manages to pull off the appearance, mannerisms and gravitas of a 68-year-old mafia patriarch at the tender age of just 47.

This spellbinding ageing illusion far outdoes most CGI-based attempts in contemporary cinema.

Alongside hair and makeup, a lot of it comes from Brando’s own personal touches. In his screen test, he stuffed tissues into the corners of his mouth to create the effect of Corleone’s signature loosened jowls before having a dentist recreate this effect for the film itself. He adds a gravelly tone to Corleone’s voice and deliberately limits his mouth movements while talking and walking with a slow, shuffling gait.

These ageing effects mirror what Brando achieved in A Streetcar Named Desire, when as a 26-year-old actor, he effortlessly portrays the much older character Kowalski.

How many Oscars did The Godfather win?

Remarkably, despite being widely regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time, The Godfather only won three Oscars. In part thanks to Brando’s astonishing performance, though, it did collect the all-important ‘Best Picture’ gong.

And, of course, Marlon Brando himself won his second Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’.

He famously sent an Indigenous American girl to collect the statuette on his behalf. During the presentation, she read a message Brando had written, which drew attention to the racist treatment of Native Americans by the film industry.

In Apocalypse Now, what was Marlon Brando’s role?

Brando’s role in Apocalypse Now might have been a relatively small one, but it is almost as iconic as his turn as Vito Corleone.

He plays Colonel Kurtz, the deranged US Army officer who’s lost himself in the Vietnamese jungle and turned into the divine ruler of a local tribe. He is the man Martin Sheen’s character Willard is searching for throughout most of the film. And his final words are the film’s most enduring: “The horror. The horror.”

Despite being lauded for the role following the film’s release, in truth Brando seemed unwilling to play it during the film’s production. He repeatedly objected to Francis Ford Coppola’s attempts to direct him, and was so overweight that the production team feared his appearance might not be suitable for the part.

When did Marlon Brando die?

Marlon Brando died in 2004, aged 80. After decades of poor health due to obesity and diabetes, he finally succumbed to pulmonary fibrosis and heart disease.

The last known photo of the actor shows him haggard and badly overweight, wearing a nasogastric tube and in a wheelchair being pushed by a carer.

Was marlon brando bisexual?

In the 1970s Brando openly admitted to having had “homosexual experiences”, at least one of which was rumoured to be with James Dean.

He also famously gave a 2001 acting workshop to a star-studded group of students in full drag. And his final film role was voicing Mrs Sour in the animation Big Bug Man, for which he prepared by dressing up as his character. His voice coach for the movie would later claim: “His make-up made him look like Ronald McDonald in drag.”

Brando also had his fair share of heterosexual relationships. These included trysts with Marilyn Monroe, Nancy Kwan, Shelley Winters and James Dean’s romantic partner Pier Angeli. In addition, he had an on-off relationship with Rita Moreno.

Moreno and Brando continued their dalliance over an eight-year period, including during two of his marriages. So, according to testimonies from numerous lovers, acquaintances and the man himself, it seems highly likely that Marlon Brando was bisexual.

Who was Marlon Brando’s spouse?

Brando actually had three spouses. He married British actor Anna Kashfi in 1957 after meeting her a year earlier when she was just 21. The marriage ended in divorce less than two years later. His 1960 marriage to Mexican-American actor Movita Castaneda, who was eight years his senior, was annulled in 1968.

And during the course of his later-annulled second marriage, he married 20-year-old French Polynesian actor Tarita Teriʻipaia, having starred in the film Mutiny on the Bounty with her. The pair started their relationship after Brando had his child with Rita Moreno aborted, and his affair with Teriʻipaia led Moreno to attempt suicide.

Who are Marlon Brando’s children?

In all, Marlon Brando had 11 children by several different women. They are, in order of birth: Christian Brando, Miko Castaneda Brando, Simon Teihotu Brando, Lisa Brando, Rebecca Brando, Cheyenne Brando, Raiatua Brando, Maimiti Brando, Ninna Priscilla Brando, Myles Jonathan Brando and Timothy Gahan Brando.

Cheyenne Brando tragically died by suicide, five years after half-brother Christian Brando shot her boyfriend dead in 1990. Christian Brando himself died of pneumonia in 2008 after serving time in prison for manslaughter and admitting to other violent crimes.

What is Teti’aroa?

Teti’aroa is Marlon Brando’s private island, an atoll in French Polynesia which he purchased after visiting it while shooting Mutiny on the Bounty in 1962. He envisaged it as a utopian tropical paradise where he could escape from the burdens of fame, media intrusion and family problems back in the US.

Brando built a small village on the island in 1970 and began staying there for as much time as possible. In the late 1970s, Brando turned the village into a hotel managed by his ex-wife Teriipaia.

Following his death, the hotel was closed. But it reopened as The Brando Hotel in 2014, run by a local Tahitian hotel company.

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